PCDA brings a major change in the WIPO mandate

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During 11-15 June 2007, the Provisional Committee on Proposals for a WIPO
(World Intellectual Property Organization) Development Agenda (PCDA) had
meetings during which WIPO members negotiated agreements on several
proposals for new activities of the UN organization.

“This is a major achievement. It’s a complete overhaul of the WIPO concept,
broadening it to reflect society’s growing concern with ownership of
technologies and knowledge, and its effects for the future, both in
developed and developing countries” was the statement of a participant in
the meetings.

Six clusters of proposals, labelled A to F, were under discussion during the
meeting on issues such as open collaborative projects, intellectual property
protection, and development impact assessments. An agreement was reached on
21 proposals that came now besides the 24 agreed upon during the meeting on
23 February. All of the 45 proposals agreed this year will be adopted by the
General Assembly and implemented in September.

The initial idea of reforming WIPO came in 2004 from Argentina and Brazil
and the 45 proposals have resulted from the 111 proposals made by various
countries during a two-year period.

Proposals agreed during this last meeting covered domains such as technical
assistance, rule making, technology transfer, development impact
assessments, WIPO’s mandate, touching topics such as protection to
competition, access to knowledge and open collaborative models to support
public domain.

A new WIPO Committee on Development and IP was recommended for setting up to
replace PCDA and the Permanent Committee on Cooperation for Development
Related to Intellectual Property (PCIPD). The proposed committee would hold
its first meeting in the first half of 2008.

The new committee’s tasks will be to elaborate a work programme for the
implementation of the proposed recommendations, to “monitor, assess, discuss
and report on the implementation of all recommendations adopted, discuss IP
and development related issues as agreed by the Committee, as well as those
decided by the General Assembly.”

The director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO),
Dr.Kamil Idris has considered the discussions as “a milestone in the history
of the Organization”. “This process and the spirit of compromise and mutual
understanding in which it took place, is an important contribution to
international efforts to promote the development of a balanced intellectual
property system that is responsive to the needs and interests of all
countries – developed and developing alike” he added.

James Love, director of the NGO- Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
explained the importance of the result: “After three years, WIPO has
produced a meaningful and welcome new vision for WIPO. The governments who
participated in the negotiations agreed that WIPO is no longer only to
pursue mindless expansions of intellectual property rights, but now is a
place to discuss a broad range of topics, including measures to protect or
promote access to knowledge, the implications and benefits of a rich and
accessible public domain, and strategies for dealing with abuses of rights,
or other measures to protect the public interest.”

He also emphasised the need to continue the common efforts for the
implementation of the Development Agenda: “Having concluded a difficult and
quite meaty negotiation over WIPO’s purpose and direction, there will be an
effort to implement the new Development Agenda. The next two to three years
will be critical. One has to prudently wonder how sustainable is the
interest in this reform effort. The institutional juggernaut behind stronger
IPR is well financed and permanent, and the opposition is often poorly
resourced and episodic.”

In A ‘Major Achievement’, WIPO Negotiators Create New Development Mandate
(18.06.2007)
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=656

WIPO Committee Reaches Breakthrough Agreements On Development Agenda
(15.06.2007)
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=655

Final PCDA Recommendations to 2007 General Assembly (15.06.2007)
http://www.keionline.org/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=39&p=51

KEI Statement on conclusion of WIPO Development Agenda negotiations
(15.06.2007)
http://www.keionline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=88

WIPO Director General Welcomes Major Breakthrough following Agreement on
Proposals for a WIPO Development Agenda (18.06.2007)
http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2007/article_0037.html

Blogging WIPO: The New Development Agenda (18.06.2007)
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005320.php